


Friendship and Other Myths

by wendymr



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-ep for Allegory of Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 02:00:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2714843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendymr/pseuds/wendymr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“Just wanted to say... I’m sorry things worked out the way they did, ma’am. I know you’d been friends a long time.”</i>  Lewis and Innocent talk after <i>Allegory of Love</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendship and Other Myths

**Author's Note:**

> With many thanks to Divingforstones for the insightful and encouraging BR.

Jean glances up at the tap on her doorframe. Lewis is standing in the open doorway.

“Just wanted to say... I’m sorry things worked out the way they did, ma’am. I know you’d been friends a long time.”

One of her oldest friends. And a real friend, too, not one of those she has to cultivate as part of the job, or who cultivate her for similar reasons. It feels like a personal betrayal — one of the worse she’s ever experienced. 

Not that she can tell Lewis that — though she suspects he has a pretty good idea. Jean gives him a resigned grimace. “Not your fault, Robbie. You and Hathaway just did your job. And did it extraordinarily well, as it happens. I don’t think I would ever have suspected Ginny.”

“Why would you?” Lewis steps inside and closes the door over. “We don’t tend to suspect the people we’re closest to. And none of the evidence remotely pointed to her. I wouldn’t’ve thought of it if she hadn’t given me a hint, and if Alice hadn’t then told me what Dorian said to her. She almost got away with it.”

Jean nods. Of course, it wasn’t her case, so she wasn’t as familiar with the evidence as Lewis and Hathaway were, but she had made a point of spending time with Ginny, particularly after Dorian’s murder.

To think she’s been comforting the very person who killed Dorian. Killed her own foster-son.

Not to mention everything she’s confided in Ginny over the past few years. All those late nights over copious glasses of wine, sharing truths and fears she’s never been able to tell anyone else.

To think she’d envied Ginny: not only a job she loved, and one where she didn’t have to deal with sexist pricks on a daily basis, but a successful son who loved her (if only Jean could be certain about Chris, who blows hot and cold), and footloose and fancy-free when it comes to men.

Oh, Christ... “I tried to matchmake between the two of you.” She stares at Lewis, stricken.

He waves a hand. “It was a kind thought, ma’am. But I wasn’t... Well, I’m not ready for anything like that, so nothing would’ve come of it anyway.”

Jean closes her eyes briefly. “It probably sounds callous, but I’m glad.”

“Not callous at all, ma’am.” Lewis rubs at his eyebrow, and Jean suspects he’s searching for a way to make a graceful exit. He’s done his duty now, after all. Been polite, enquired after her well-being.

She’s about to put him out of his misery by dismissing him gently when he speaks again. “You gonna stay here much later, ma’am?” Taken aback, Jean doesn’t reply immediately. “Cause I was thinking of headin’ to the White Horse for a pint, only Hathaway’s got band practice. Wouldn’t mind the company, if you’re not busy.”

Yet again, Jean thanks whatever lucky stars influenced her to change her mind about Robbie Lewis when he first came back from his attachment. He may cause her more migraines than all her other DIs put together, but he’s a bloody good copper, and perhaps the kindest and most discreet man she knows.

“That sounds like a bloody good idea.” She piles the papers on her desk into a drawer, shuts down her computer, and prepares herself to get stinking drunk. Because, even after all these years on the job, some days just merit that remedy.

The first round’s on her, she resolves as she ushers Robbie out of her office. And, probably, if he’ll let her, the second and third.

* * *


End file.
